Gooners, where would we be without our new Tony Adams?

 By Danong

After Manchester City and Liverpool dropped points on Tuesday night, Arsenal had to beat Tottenham Hotspur by any means necessary, whether it was a North London derby or not.

Well, they did just that, but Tottenham made them work hard for it. Though the Gunners dominated, Heung Min Son gave Spurs the lead in the 25th minute. 

Thankfully, Arsenal maintained their cool and didn't panic. Their patience paid off when, from a corner kick in the 40th minute, they equalized through a Gabriel Magalhães header that deflected off Dominic Solanke into the back of the net. 

Four minutes later, from a Thomas Partey steal to a Martin Ødegaard pass, Leandro Trossard (scoring his 18th goal against the big 6) fired a powerful shot into the bottom right corner to sensationally give Arsenal the lead and complete their comeback.

The second half was intense, with Arsenal trying to kill off the game and Spurs attempting to turn things around. However, it ended goalless. Arsenal won 2-1, managing to contain Spurs' second-half forward push.

There were many takeaways from that game, one of them being how and why Gabriel Magalhães is key to Arsenal's game plan. 

The Brazilian is one of Mikel Arteta's most reliable, consistent, and fierce performers.

Like Tony Adams, he plays for the badge on the front of his shirt, and that's why we keep mentioning him game after game. 

Last week  he was superb, just like he was in early September when the two clashed at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and the Gunners won 1-0.

Gabriel's stats across the two Premier League meetings with Tottenham this season:

- 10 clearances
- 7/10 duels won
- 7 touches in the opponent's box
- 5 blocks
- 4 tackles
- 2 interceptions
- 2 shots
- 1 goal plus causing an own goal from Solanke

His passion and aggressiveness in defending adds fuel to the team's functioning.

We often talk about how we miss Bukayo Saka's contributions and how we struggle when Martin Ødegaard has a bad game, but Gabby is an underappreciated key cog in everything Arsenal tries to do. 

This season, he has scored against all of Arsenal’s big rivals: Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Manchester City and Manchester United.

He picked up the Man of the Match award for his NLD performance, his second Man of the Match award for this derby this season and third for this fixture:

Man of the Match:

April 2024: Tottenham 2-3 Arsenal 
September 2024: Tottenham 0-1 Arsenal 
January 2025: Arsenal 2-1 Tottenham 

Honestly, the Brazilian is criminally underrated. Where would Arsenal be without him?